lord of the toys.

Walking around Middle-earth: Shadow of War without the Ring of Power or supernatural abilities of any kind is like strutting around naked. But playing as Baranor and his absurd array of weapons and gadgets gives The Desolation of Mordor DLC some fun and interesting gameplay tweaks for the short time this self-contained adventure lasts.

The Desolation of Mordor finds Baranor far from the fiery realm of Mordor, venturing to the dry and dust storm-ridden realm of Lithlad where both uruks and Easterling mercenaries dwell (aka those guys with the elephants in Return of the King). He’s got a few dry character moments as he teams up with the mercenary leader, and Torvin the dwarf makes a guest appearance that’s criminally brief. I was surprised to find there were no classic beast hunts or missions to undertake with the dwarf; instead, he’s been relegated to the stereotypical dwarf role of “gear upgrade man.”

A new skill tree and radial menu for arrows makes him quicker to adapt than Talion.

Thankfully, what Baranor lacks in personality, wraith and uruk-domination powers, and the ability to rise from the grave when killed, he makes up for with some ancient Numenorean tech that transforms him into an amalgamation of nearly every other third-person action video game protagonist. His new kit includes a portable kite for BASE jumping (Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild), a retractable shield for bashing and charges (God of War), a grapnel gun for rapid transit (Batman: Arkham City/Just Cause), and a wrist-mounted crossbow full of various ammo types (Assassin’s Creed Unity). And yet, instead of feeling like blatant rip-offs, all of these gadgets make Baranor stand on his own and fun to play around with.

One of the best parts about Baranor’s new gear is that most of it is unlocked in the first few minutes of the story, and a new skill tree and radial menu for arrows makes him quicker to adapt than Talion. And being mortal adds some new, higher stakes to change the way you evaluate combat scenarios. If you die, there’s no respawning: you lose all of your mercenaries and outposts and have to build up your forces once more, making Desolation of Mordor feel a little like a roguelike.

Having one life to live doesn't leave much room for revenge.

Much of your conquest in Desolation of Mordor will rely on these Easterling mercenaries. You have to buy them with coin you scrounge up from taking outposts and killing enemies, and higher-tier mercenaries cost more money. They aren’t as colorful or memorable as the uruks and ologs you’ll fight, but they do come in many variations that mirror enemy classes and bring new team-based skills to the table. Each ally you summon to fight has both regular and stealth-based command skills, allowing you to target enemies and send your bodyguards out in different ways. Some use smoke bombs and explosives while others rally nearby troops or even dish out consumables for you to pick up. My favorites were the passive skills from shield-bearing mercenaries that allowed me to springboard off them while vaulting to leap into the air, deploy my kite, and send explosive arrows raining down from above before dropping down to assassinate a hapless uruk from the skies.

Still, the absence of key elements of the Nemesis System left me wanting more meaningful encounters with enemies and allies alike. Having one life to live doesn’t leave much room for revenge, and the campaign ends far too quickly for any uruks to cheat death and harass you. Likewise, your bodyguards don’t have much to say, and their randomized names and titles to little to differentiate them beyond their skills – except one of my bodyguards who really liked to wear gold.

Being able to light your shield on fire or turn your grappling hook into a whip is as fun to see in action as it is useful.

Besides the new hazardous were-worm beasts, the only other thing of note in Lithlad is to find a smattering of hidden collectibles, which are surprisingly well implemented and meaningful. Unlike the monotonous loop of tagging useless doodads to collect as Talion, you can find Numenorean artifacts stashed around the region – and you’ll need to go on a treasure hunt to find them, using sketches of the location supplied by Torvin. Finding this lost technology is the only way to upgrade your best gear, and being able to light your shield on fire or turn your grappling hook into a whip is as fun to see in action as it is useful. My favorite upgrade lets your grappling hook to send you zooming up past ledges to seamlessly deploy your kite, making you the straight-up Batman of Middle-earth.

Beyond the few short story missions, the bulk of Desolation of Mordor comes from the large sandy region you find yourself trapped in. You need to take all five outposts in the area before you can make the final fortress assault to win, and to its credit, outposts have more weight than they did in Talion’s adventures thanks to bonuses applied from placing defenders. However, once you take out the big Overlord of the region, your adventure is over – and it won’t take more than a few hours to accomplish that feat. You can replay Desolation of Mordor to skip the intro missions and try taking the outposts and fort as fast as possible for a better score, but I found myself wishing things lasted a bit longer, or at least gave the option to do Online Conquests with my new merc buddies.

The Verdict

Baranor’s new toys and helpful mercenaries give Middle-earth: Shadow of War - The Desolation of Mordor a fresh take that does its best to shine despite the lack of a complete Nemesis system. Without a gripping story or interesting protagonist, it settles on being a fun but short challenge mode.